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She said: “We had to go through the break-up scene the other day and I was being too nice to him.

“The director took me aside and said to be really horrible to him and don’t even do the lines – just shout at him, ‘Will you just **** off? I don’t love you any more!’”

“He just wanted Sanj to look bewildered. Well, I did it and poor Sanj didn’t know what had hit him. He was like, ‘Can you just give me a hug, please?’ I had to say, ‘Sorry, the director made me do it.’

Dawn and Jordan Young in River City (Image: BBC)

“He was so brilliant in the scene and was just bawling his eyes out. So I was hysterical, crying too, and the director said, ‘Dawn, maybe save it until the camera is on you.’

“When we filmed my scenes, we were right up against time. I had a flight to go home, it was almost 7pm, it was Friday night, everyone was like, ‘Right, let’s get this done.’

“Sanj gave me everything, we got it done, then all the studio lights went out, the cameramen left and I was sitting weeping on the couch on our set. And then you go and get the flight home. It’s such a weird job at times.”

Ironically, it is also the most normal job the actress has ever had. Her character, a woman frustrated with life and bored in her marriage, is everything Dawn is not.

She is getting married next year and her husband-to-be, actor Paul Blair, looks after their daughter Coco at home in Whitstable, Kent, while Dawn commutes to Glasgow.

They are regular visitors to see her but she also has set blocks of time when she is not filming to be at home.

At 40, she is settled and embracing the routine Shieldinch has allowed her.

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Dawn said: “That’s why River City works. I know it’s away from home but you know when you finish, you know you have that block of time off, you know when you start again, unless they kill you off, obviously. You have summer and you have Christmas.

“River City, weirdly, feels like a normal job. I’ve got a car parking space. You’re in a studio that’s like an office and you have a canteen and a dressing room.

“It’s the first job I have ever had like this where it is not a Winnebago or a shack in Africa. It is a proper set-up, it feels like nine to five, even though it is not nine to five.

“I drive myself to work – we never really get to do that but they trust us to get to work on time.

“It is a big change from what I am used to and I like it. You get some head space, get to go over your lines.

“That is why I enjoy it so much. It has a sense of permanency in a way and you really shouldn’t feel like that as an actor because you have no idea what they are going to do with you next.

“But when I started here, I knew all the crew and half the actors so I felt I had come home. I was nervous but, after a while, I just thought, ‘This feels right.’”

Dawn with her soap husband Sanjeev Kohli (Image: BBC)

Of course, she still has ambitions and is looking to see what is out there but that’s the natural instincts of a freelance worker who has been used to making her own way.

In her case, she has done it very successfully, starring in network productions such as ITV’s big-budget South African vet drama Wild At Heart, BBC favourite Monarch of The Glen and supernatural drama Sea of Souls.

Even so, at a time when River City has waved farewell to a number of long-standing stars such as Paul James Corrigan, Keira Lucchesi and original star Deirdre Davis as they seek out new roles and opportunities, she feels like she is going in the opposite direction.

She said: “I’m very happy, enjoying the stability and the family sense you get from the crew. It’s very tight here and the show is doing well.

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“I’ve got one eye out for what’s happening elsewhere but I am definitely not as ambitious as I used to be.

“There are a number of people moving on in the show who have been in it for some time and I am quite enjoying settling down.”

If there’s a slight fly in the ointment, it is that her daughter will be five in November and is about to start school. Coco’s ready for it but Dawn’s not sure if she is.

She said: “I start filming River City in August but I am going to take a week off when she starts. That’s the only thing I am nervous about. I am going to be away. But it just means they can’t come up as much so it will be me going home more.

“The mother guilt never really goes away but in any job you will get that. It’s unfortunate my job is away but, on the other hand, I have concentrated times at home.

“This is the first big job I have done away from her. There are positives. My mum and dad have seen loads of their granddaughter and my brother has just had twins and I get to spend loads of time with them. Plus, loads of my pals are up here so I don’t get the feeling of isolation you get in some jobs away from home.”

She could move back home to Scotland but is too settled in the scenic harbour town on England’s south-east coast, where she will get married on the beach next year.

She said: “We’ve not thought of moving back – we’re too settled where we are. We've been there for four years, Coco is about to start school and it’s a beautiful place to live.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Why am I living here, making things more difficult?’ But it’s worth it. I open the curtains and there’s the sea.

“It’s for Coco, that’s the main thing, to grow up somewhere like that, which of course she won’t appreciate until she gets to my age and starts having kids.

“We used to live just off Portobello Road in London in this really cool flat so she is just going to hate me.

“The good thing about Whitstable is that the community really love it. It’s only an hour from London too so it’s not the sticks. I feel like I am getting the best of both worlds.”